If not, then in summary; over a year ago, ImageShack was hacked by an anonymous group of black hat hackers called the Anti-Sec movement. Every link to every ImageShack image was instead redirected to an image of their manifesto instead. Because many users rely on ImageShack to host images such as forum avatars, etc., a large number of websites were also indirectly affected by Anti-Sec’s efforts to establish a presence on the internet.

The topic, however, is not the group itself–It’s the user response to their actions and subsequent message. What I want to bring up is that, until the moment they hacked ImageShack, they were a largely unknown group. By hacking into a well-known host for images and forcing users to read their manifesto, Anti-Sec was able to incite an immense social response. Their presence was widely reported virtually everywhere on the internet–forums, public media, (newsprint) blogs, and so on. And, as indicated in the above article’s comments, the response was largely negative.

However, the moment of fame that they held for hacking a high-profile site has since been quickly forgotten. In fact, no one pays attention until a group like Anti-Sec is party to another major endeavour such as this one, and their attention span tends to be rather short–but when the user’s attention is attracted, the results are often dramatic.